An American soldier in Kandahar. Photo: Flickr user

Ambassador S. Azmat Hassan is a former Ambassador of Pakistan to Malaysia, Syria and Morocco and Deputy Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations. He is currently an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University and is a contributing Worldfocus blogger.

Mankind has engaged in violent extremism since Biblical times. Cain became the world’s first terrorist by slaying his brother Abel. Voltaire pessimistically characterized human history as nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

In a sense, America lost its innocence on 9/11. The international community sympathized with Washington but it also said, “Welcome to the real world!”

The Bush administration with its Manichean world view exploited a fearful populace to execute its agenda of “full spectrum dominance” and preemptive war. It invaded two countries — Afghanistan and Iraq — and openly threatened military action against a third: Iran. In the desire to exact retribution, the motivations driving such terrorist attacks were largely ignored. The lives lost and financial resources squandered have been enormous.

More than 8 years have elapsed since the 9/11 atrocity, but it is a moot point if the U.S. is any safer today. That no further attacks on the U,.S. mainland have taken place, suggests that the revamped security structure despite its flaws, is keeping American citizens safe.

What should be clearly understood is that there is no foolproof security system that can prevent committed terrorists from carrying out violent acts against the citizens of another country.

For years, Armenian terrorists were killing Turkish citizens as revenge for the alleged genocide perpetrated by Ottoman Turks on its Armenian subjects during World War I. Israelis and Palestinians have been killing each other since the founding of Israel in 1948. Kashmiris and Indians are doing the same in Indian-administered Kashmir. The list goes on.

The Nigerian underwear bomber’s recent failed attempt to blow up an American airliner, which the media played up, has once again brought a wave of fear to our shores. I wish some senior official of the Obama administration had calmed the public by recalling Roosevelt’s sage advice to his countrymen: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Terrorism is propaganda by deed, since terrorism is theater. Al-Qaeda succeeds every time it plants fear and uncertainty in our hearts and minds. We should get over being overly obsessed about our security. Our despondency comes close to pusillanimity, which runs against the America tradition of courage and fortitude.

Capturing or killing bin Laden and his deputy al-Zawahiri should remain a U.S. objective, but without the media hype. Because by doing this, we are in a sense helping to resurrect them for their dwindling band of followers. The less heed we pay them publicly, the more quickly they will fade away into obscurity.

In concentrating on bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, we may be focusing on the symptoms rather than the disease. Let us be clear: if one or both of them are eliminated tomorrow, al-Qaeda, which has become a transnational enterprise, will not fold. It is not even known how much influence these two fugitives continue to exercise on al-Qaeda’s global reach.

Violent extremism is like a chronic disease. It cannot be eradicated but its effects can be considerably mitigated by a combination of soft power and hard power, with soft power being the predominant element in the mix. The U.S. and the West should focus on winning hearts and minds of the people in whose midst violent extremists operate.

Once we empower these people by making them stakeholders in peaceful economic development, violent extremists will be marginalized. Right now the U.S. seems to be relying much more on hard power in Afghanistan and Iraq. Such an approach — far from being crowned with success — is likely to put the U.S. on the slippery path to ultimate failure.

- S. Azmat Hassan

Howard discusses the chance of war will breaking out again in the region and how peace is being maintained. She also speaks about the role that the Obama administration can play.

Witnesses said yesterday’s protests were the largest and bloodiest since those following the disputed presidential elections in June.

Iranian security forces continued their crackdown against the country’s prominent opposition movement, arresting seven anti-government activists.

Unrest continued today, as evidenced by a video purporting to be from today’s events:

Iranian and foreign media were restricted by the Iranian government from attending yesterday’s protests. Any footage made public was captured by activists. This video contains violent images:

The next video shows students chanting and marching in the streets:

President of the Global Americana Institute, Juan Cole, finds this movement insufficient for significant change to occur. He writes:

For the movement to go further and become truly revolutionary, it would have to have a leader who wanted to overthrow the old regime and who could attract the loyalty of both the people and elements of the armed forces. So far this key revolutionary element, of dual sovereignty, has been lacking, insofar as opposition leaders Mir Hosain Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have tried to stay inside the Khomeinist framework while arguing that it is Khamenei who violated it by making it too authoritarian. Saying you want slightly less autocracy within a clerical theocracy is not a recipe for revolution.

- Michael Ramirez

For more, view our Voices of Iran extended coverage page and listen to our online radio show on Baha’i faith and modern Iran.

Amateur videos culled from YouTube show that this year’s events quickly transformed into a demonstration opposing their government.

The following video from Dec. 7 shows a large group of passionate high school protesters demanding a change in Iran’s government. Many of the young women are wearing green masks indicating their support for the “green movement.”

The students are chanting: “Teachers with pride - we need your support! / I will kill, I will kill whomever kill my brother! / All political prisoners must be free! / Death to the dictator! / Death to this regime that kills its own people!”

In the video below from Dec. 7th, student protesters from Tehran Polytechnic University demand regime change: “You traitor Mahmoud (Ahmadinejad). We hope that you become a wanderer. You destroyed our homeland! You killed the youths of this country! You sent thousands into the graves! Death to you, death to you! Death to the dictator.”

In the next video, also from Dec. 7th, a massive gathering of student protesters waves pre-Islamic Revolution Persian flags outside Tehran University and chants: “Death to the dictator” and “What has happened to the oil revenue? It has gone to the pockets of Basijis.”

The last video, from Dec. 8th, displays students from Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman demanding a new government, as well as the release of the 204 activists arrested during the Dec. 7th protests.

- Michael Ramirez

For more, view our Voices of Iran extended coverage page and listen to our online radio show on Baha’i faith and modern Iran.

Israeli soldiers argue with a Palestinian farmer in at-Tuwani, West Bank. Photo: Flickr user JoshHough

The peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is in crisis, with no sign that a key issue — freezing Israeli settlements — can be resolved any time soon.

With that in mind, we want to go beyond the rhetoric and look at how Israelis and Palestinians see their shared land.

Should Israel agree to demands to freeze all settlement building?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Please remember to be respectful and on-point in your comments. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted and repeat offenders will be banned.

For more on the violence in Gaza, listen to Worldfocus interviews with experts on the ground in Gaza and surrounding regions.

Aaron David Miller, a public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, speaks with Martin Savidge about the potential role of the U.S. in the Gaza conflict, and the difficult choices that President-elect Obama will soon have to make.

Richard Weitz, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, speaks with Martin Savidge about the possibility of an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.

Michael Wahid Hanna, of the Century Foundation, speaks with Martin Savidge about Egypt’s role in the Hamas-Israel conflict.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has endured conflict for more than a decade in what has been called the deadliest war since World War II. More than 5 million people have died and the country is also the site of the largest and most expensive peacekeeping mission in United Nations history.

In the last year alone, more than a million people have fled the fighting in eastern Congo. For more on the conflict, read our Q&A: History, rebels and crisis in eastern Congo.

Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosts a panel featuring a range of voices and perspectives on eastern Congo:

Séverine Autesserre is an assistant professor of political science at Barnard College, Columbia University. She researches civil wars, peace building and peace keeping, humanitarian aid and African politics. Her upcoming book is called Failing the Congo: International intervention and local violence. Before entering academia, Séverine worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo for humanitarian and development agencies.

Nancee Oku Bright currently heads up the United Nations’ Great Lakes team of the department of peacekeeping operations, which covers MONUC and Burundi. She served in MONUC and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as chief of the Africa section, as well as chief of the advocacy and public information. A Liberian, she is also the director of the documentary film “Liberia: America’s Stepchild,” which aired on PBS in 2002.

Michael J. Kavanagh is a journalist with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting who reports about post-conflict development across Africa. He has been reporting on Congo for five years and his work has been regularly featured on Worldfocus.

- See Michael’s reports: War in DR Congo: The story of Pascal and Vestine
Rape as a weapon of war in DR Congo
- See Michael’s Q&A: History, rebels and crisis in eastern Congo.
- See Michael’s blog post about covering Congo: Giving a human face to Congo’s conflict.

Conflict has ripped through eastern Congo, uprooting thousands of civilians. But violence has also impacted the country’s mountain gorilla population that lives on land that has absorbed much of the fighting.

This week, rangers returned to the park’s main gorilla sector for the first time in over a year. The rangers are now canvassing the forest to determine how many of the gorillas have survived.

Last year in the park, at least 10 gorillas were killed — several shot in the head. Soldiers also captured baby chimpanzees and monkeys and took them as pets.

Rangers at Virunga National Park’s blog write from key patrol posts about their return to the gorillas.

Nov. 25: Up among the mountain gorillas

Today was an extraordinary day. We launched the gorilla survey to get an accurate assessment of the status and health of Virunga’s mountain gorillas after 15 months of conflict.

With Diddy, Innocent, Pierre, Altor from IGCP, and others, we joined the rangers and trackers who remained behind in the Gorilla Sector and moved into the forest. Within an hour, we had found the nests of the Humba group, and after tracking them for ten minutes we began to hear those wonderful familiar grunts.

We almost fell on Humba himself, sitting under a tree, looking at us wondering what all the fuss was about. Humba is the most laid back of all the silverbacks I know, and his wonderful temperament affects the whole group who were all very relaxed. Diddy and Innocent began their work with the trackers and rangers to try to identify all the members of the group. I won’t pre-empt the results which will be published in about one month, except to say that we have nothing to worry about with the Humba group. They’re in good shape.

I have to go down to Rumangabo tomorrow, as there is still an awful lot to do, but the team is remaining up here to continue the survey.

Nov. 22: [Park Ranger] Innocent Returns to Bukima

This afternoon I accompanied Innocent as he and other Rangers tested the road up to the Bukima Patrol Post. The road hadn’t been used in more than a year so it was very difficult, but in the end we made it to the top.

As you can see from the video I filmed, the Rangers were extremely glad to be back after such a long absence. We are now back in Rumangabo, but we left some trackers behind. The plan is to go back up tomorrow morning with all our equipment and look for the Humba gorilla group in the afternoon. We are all very excited to see how they are doing!

To read more, see the Virunga National Park blog.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photos courtesy of the Virunga National Park blog.